TULSA -- An unarmed black man shot dead in the middle of a street by a white Oklahoma police officer had run-ins with the law dating back to his teenage years and had recently served four years in prison, according to records.
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But those closest to Terence Crutcher described him as a church-going father who was beginning to turn his life around. After marking his 40th birthday with his twin sister last month, Crutcher sent her a text that read, "I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna make you all proud."
Crutcher was to start a music appreciation class at a nearby community college Friday, the day he was fatally shot by Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby after she responded to a report of a vehicle abandoned in the road.
The shooting was captured on video by a police helicopter and a cruiser dash camera, though it's not clear from that footage what led Shelby to draw her gun or what orders officers gave Crutcher. An attorney for Crutcher's family said Crutcher committed no crime and gave officers no reason to shoot.
[Read about recent fatal shootings by police across the country.]
Shelby was put on paid administrative leave while local and federal officials investigate the shooting.
Crutcher's criminal history includes a 1995 arrest in nearby Osage County in which officers reported that they saw him fire his weapon out a vehicle window. Records obtained Tuesday show that when Crutcher was ordered to exit the vehicle for a pat-down search, he began making a movement to his right ankle before an officer managed to get control of Crutcher. A .25-caliber pistol was found in his right sock, the arresting officer wrote in an affidavit.
Crutcher eventually entered a no-contest plea to charges of carrying a weapon and resisting an officer, and he received suspended sentences, court records show.
Oklahoma prison officials confirmed Tuesday that Crutcher also served four years in prison from 2007-11 on a Tulsa County drug-trafficking conviction.
Court records show that officers used force against Crutcher on at least four occasions, including a 2012 arrest on public-intoxication and obstruction complaints. In that case, an officer used a stun gun on Crutcher twice while he was facedown on the ground because the officer said Crutcher didn't comply with at least three orders to show his hands, according to a police affidavit. Crutcher's father showed up while he was being arrested and told the officers that his son had "an ongoing problem" with the drug PCP, the affidavit states.
"Nobody claimed that he was a perfect individual. Who is perfect? But that night he was not a criminal," said Melvin Hall, an attorney for Crutcher's family, regarding Crutcher's criminal record. "He did not have any warrants. He had not done anything wrong. He had a malfunctioning vehicle, and he should have been treated accordingly."
On Friday, two 911 calls describing an SUV that had been abandoned in the middle of the road preceded the fatal encounter between Crutcher and the police.
Tulsa Police Sgt. Dave Walker told the Tulsa World that investigators found a vial of PCP in Crutcher's SUV, but he declined to say where in the vehicle they found it or whether they had determined if Crutcher had used it Friday evening. Police said a toxicology report could take several weeks.
Attorneys for Crutcher's family said the family didn't know whether drugs were found in the SUV, but that even if they were, it wouldn't justify police shooting him.
Police Chief Chuck Jordan has said Crutcher had no weapon on him or in his SUV.
A Section on 09/22/2016